For folks who are following the Scandinavian debate, this post by Bjørn Stærk (from back in February) will be of interest.
I’m sure the numbers are correct: Less marriage, more children out of marriage. And if you agree with the assumption that American family values are important you’ll find that worrisome. I don’t, but none of this is relevant as it says nothing about any connection between gay marriage (or partnership as it’s known here) and these trends. There is a correlation, but correlation is not causation. More likely both trends are caused the liberalization of sexual values that began in the 70’s. This tells us that where people abandon traditional sexual values, they are more likely to have children out of marriage and to support gay marriage. It does not tell us that by preventing legal recognition of gay marriage you can make people return to traditional sexual values.
He goes on to point out that even if SSM caused some trends in Scandinavia – which hasn’t even come close to being proven – that still doesn’t tell us much about what will happen in the USA, which is culturally and legally very different.
He’s right. I’ve never understood the belief that allowing SSM will end up destroying or damaging conventional marriage. Through what causal mechanism, is what I always wonder. Gay cooties on the marriage altar?
Conventional marriage’s decline in some quarters and the rise of “alternative lifestyles” can be tied to similar root causes, I think, but that doesn’t mean A causes B.
The Swedish Census Bureau says that 72% of Swedish kiddos age 1-17 live with BOTH their biological parents. Seems pretty “conservative” and “family-oriented” to me. We just don’t need the “blessing” of any gods to create a family. Link in Swedish: http://www.scb.se/templates/tableOrChart____27445.asp
Yes. As Ampersand points out, the cultures are very different. This makes it tricky to apply information from Scandinavia to the U.S. circumstances and it also makes it difficult to understand the Scandinavian information correctly here. Living together is something very different there than here, even from a moral point of view.
The author of the original Scandinavian study – Spedale – and others have recently written what appears to be the most comprehensive analysis of the Scandinavian same-sex marriage laws to date. It looks at the effect (or lack thereof) of SSM on societies that have gay marriage, and finds that there are no negative effects from SSM on marriage, and might even be positive ones. Interesting study if you want a more in-depth look at this argument. It can be found on http://www.bepress.com/ils/iss5/art4 and also on the Freedom to Marry site.
I found some interesting about subj, look at it. http://www.eddiereva.com